Fig. 2: Comparison of IFN and inflammatory cytokine patterns between subgroups of patients with COVID-19 and flu according to disease severity.

a, Serum levels of IFN-λ1, IFN-α, IFN-γ, TNF, IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-10 and CCL3 for critically and noncritically ill patients with COVID-19 and flu and nonhospitalized patients with mild flu at days 1–3 and 7–10 time intervals after hospital admission or visit, respectively, as well as healthy individuals. Dots show individual measurements and lines median values of hospitalized patients and healthy individuals. Squares show nonhospitalized patients with flu. Gray shading marks the limit of quantification of the assay. b, Radar plots of median cytokine levels and range of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and flu developing critical versus noncritical illness, nonhospitalized patients with flu and healthy individuals at the day 1–3 time interval after admission. Each circle in the radar plot represents logarithmically increasing concentrations from 4–256 pg ml⁻¹ as shown in the healthy controls. For days 1–3, n = 9, 7, 24, 13 and 3 for each of the five consecutive groups, respectively. For days 7–10, n = 8, 13, 15, 12 and 2, respectively. For healthy individuals, n = 10. P values were determined by a two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test for nonparametric comparisons. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01 and ***P < 0.001 show significance over healthy controls. ^#P < 0.05, ^##P < 0.01 and ^###P < 0.001 show significance between COVID-19 and flu subgroups.